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When I Disagree With A Rational Man, I Let Reality Be Our Final Arbiter; If I Am Right, He Will Learn; If I Am Wrong, I Will; One Of Us Will Win, But Both Will Profit.

-Ayn Rand

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When I Disagree With

Ayn Rand

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When I Disagree With A Rational Man, I Let Reality Be Our Final Arbiter; If I Am Right, He Will Learn; If I Am Wrong, I Will; One Of Us Will Win, But Both Will Profit.

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What Is The Basic, The Essential, The Crucial Principle That Differentiates Freedom From Slavery? It Is The Principle Of Voluntary Action Versus Physical Coercion Or Compulsion.

To The Extent To Which A Man Is Rational, Life Is The Premise Directing His Actions. To The Extent To Which He Is Irrational, The Premise Directing His Actions Is Death.

There’s Nothing As Significant As A Human Face. Nor As Eloquent. We Can Never Really Know Another Person, Except By Our First Glance At Him. Because, In That Glance, We Know Everything. Even Though We’re Not Always Wise Enough To Unravel The Knowledge.

I Never Found Beauty In Longing For The Impossible And Never Found The Possible To Be Beyond My Reach.

The Secret Dread Of Modern Intellectuals, Liberals And Conservatives Alike, The Unadmitted Terror At The Root Of Their Anxiety, Which All Of Their Current Irrationalities Are Intended To Stave Off And To Disguise, Is The Unstated Knowledge That Soviet Russia [was] The Full, Actual, Literal, Consistent Embodiment Of The Morality Of Altruism, That Stalin Did Not Corrupt A Noble Ideal, That This Is The Only Way Altruism Has To Be Or Can Ever Be Practiced.

Joy Is The Goal Of Existence, And Joy Is Not To Be Stumbled Upon, But To Be Achieved, And The Act Of Treason Is To Let Its Vision Drown In The Swamp Of The Moment's Torture.

Face A Challenge And Find Joy In The Capacity To Meet It.

I Think It's Funny. There Was A Time When Men Were Afraid That Somebody Would Reveal Some Secret Of Theirs That Was Unknown To Their Fellows. Nowadays, They're Afraid That Somebody Will Name What Everybody Knows. Have You Practical People Ever Thought That That's All It Would Take To Blast Your Whole, Big, Complex Structure, With All Your Laws And Guns - Just Somebody Naming The Exact Nature Of What You're Doing?

Honor Is Self-esteem Made Visible In Action.

A Building Has Integrity Just Like A Man. And Just As Seldom.

Man's Character Is The Product Of His Premises.

You Who Prattle That Morality Is Social And That Man Would Need No Morality On A Desert Island - It Is On A Desert Island That He Would Need It Most. Let Him Try To Claim, When There Are No Victims To Pay For It, That A Rock Is A House, That Sand Is Clothing, That Food Will Drop Into His Mouth Without Cause Or Effort, That He Will Collect A Harvest Tomorrow By Devouring His Stock Seed Today - And Reality Will Wipe Him Out, As He Deserves; Reality Will Show Him That Life Is A Value To Be Bought And That Thinking Is The Only Coin Noble Enough To Buy It.

I Cannot Be Called Upon To Know A Negative Or To Prove A Negative. If There Is A God And You Prove It, That's Fine. But You Don't Tell Me You Can't Know That There Isn't. I Would Say Yes I Know There Isn't Because I Have Been Given No Evidence.

If There Is A God

The Man At The Top Of The Intellectual Pyramid Contributes The Most To All Those Below Him, But Gets Nothing Except His Material Payment, Receiving No Intellectual Bonus From Others To Add To The Value Of His Time. The Man At The Bottom Who, Left To Himself, Would Starve In His Hopeless Ineptitude, Contributes Nothing To Those Above Him, But Receives The Bonus Of All Of Their Brains. Such Is The Nature Of The 'competition' Between The Strong And The Weak Of The Intellect. Such Is The Pattern Of 'exploitation' For Which You Have Damned The Strong.

Every Period Ruled By Mystics Was An Era Of Stagnation And Want, When Most Men Were On Strike Against Existence.

I Can't Compete And When I Do, The Rules Of Engagement Change In The Middle Of The Game. I'll Let The Powers That Be Vanquish Themselves And Return In Three To Five Years To Sift Through The Remains.

The Smallest Minority On Earth Is The Individual. Those Who Deny Individual Rights Cannot Claim To Be Defenders Of Minorities.

You Have Been The One Encounter In My Life That Can Never Be Repeated

The Right To Agree With Others Is Not A Problem In Any Society; It Is The Right To Disagree That Is Crucial. It Is The Institution Of Private Property That Protects And Implements The Right To Disagree - And Thus Keeps The Road Open To Man's Most Valuable Attribute: The Creative Mind.

To Achieve, You Need Thought. You Have To Know What You Are Doing And That's Real Power.

Men Have Died In Torture Chambers, On The Stake, In Concentration Camps, In Front Of Firing Squads, Rather Than Renounce Their Convictions. The Appeaser Renounces His Under The Pressure Of A Frown On A Vacant Face.

My Morality, The Morality Of Reason, Is Contained In A Single Axiom: Existence Exists - And In A Single Choice: To Live.

Do Not Keep Silent When Your Own Ideas And Values Are Being Attacked. If A Dictatorship Ever Comes To This Country, It Will Be By The Fault Of Those Who Keep Silent. We Are Still Free Enough To Speak. Do We Have Time? No One Can Tell.

Freedom, In A Political Context, Means Freedom From Government Coercion. It Does Not Mean Freedom From The Landlord, From The Employer, Or Freedom From The Laws Of Nature Which Do Not Provide Men With Automatic Prosperity. It Means Freedom From The Coercive Power Of The State ' And Nothing Else

The Government Has Created A Nation Of Paper Criminals. People Can Be Put In Jail And Lose Civil Rights And Liberties Through Bureaucratic Procedures.the Only Thing That Is Keeping You Out Of Jail Is Government Goodwill.

People Are Not Embracing Collectivism Because They Have Accepted Bad Economics. They Are Accepting Bad Economics Because They Have Embraced Collectivism.

If One's Actions Are Honest, One Does Not Need The Predated Confidence Of Others.

The Writer Who Develops A Beautiful Style, But Has Nothing To Say, Represents A Kind Of Arrested Esthetic Development; He Is Like A Pianist Who Acquires A Brilliant Technique By Playing Finger-exercises, But Never Gives A Concert.

The Only Proper Functions Of A Government Are: The Police, To Protect You From Criminals; The Army, To Protect You From Foreign Invaders; And The Courts, To Protect Your Property And Contracts From Breach Or Fraud By Others, And To Settle Disputes By Rational Rules, According To Objective Law.

Are My Characters Copies Of People In Real Life? ... Don't Ever Believe The Stories About Authors Putting People Into Novels. That Idea Is A Kind Of Joke On Both Authors And Readers. All The Readers Believe That Authors Do It. All The Authors Know That It Can't Be Done.

It's So Graceless, Being A Martyr. It's Honoring Your Adversaries Too Much.

Identify The Dominant Philosophy Of A Society And You Can Predict Its Future.

When You Are Asked To Love Everybody Indiscriminately, That Is To Love People Without Any Standard, To Love Them Regardless Of Whether They Have Any Value Or Virtue, You Are Asked To Love Nobody.

A Chronic Lack Of Pleasure, Of Any Enjoyable, Rewarding Or Stimulating Experiences, Produces A Slow, Gradual, Day-by-day Erosion Of Man's Emotional Vitality, Which He May Ignore Or Repress, But Which Is Recorded By The Relentless Computer Of His Subconscious Mechanism That Registers An Ebbing Flow, Then A Trickle, Then A Few Last Drops Of Fuel--until The Day When His Inner Motor Stops And He Wonders Desperately Why He Has No Desire To Go On, Unable To Find Any Definable Cause Of His Hopeless, Chronic Sense Of Exhaustion.

We [entrepreneurs] Required That You Leave Us Free To Function -- Free To Think And Work As We Choose ... -- Free To Earn Our Own Profits And Make Our Own Fortunes ... Such Was The Price We Asked, Which You Chose To Reject As Too High.

If A Man Wants Love He Should Correct His Weaknesses, Or His Flaws, And He May Deserve It. But He Cannot Expect The Unearned, Either In Love Or In Money; Either In Matter Or In Spirit.

The Man Who Produces While Others Dispose Of His Product Is A Slave.

Ask Yourself Whether The Dream Of Heaven And Greatness Should Be Waiting For Us In Our Graves - Or Whether It Should Be Ours Here And Now And On This Earth.

There Is Nothing To Take A Man’s Freedom Away From Him, Save Other Men.

I Am Only Concerned With Politics So I May See The Day When I Don't Have To Be Concerned With Politics.

Im Waiting, For What, My Kind Of People, What Kind Is That, I Can Tell My Kind Of People By Their Faces, By Something In Their Faces.

The Moral Cannibalism Of All Hedonist And Altruist Doctrines Lies In The Premise That The Happiness Of One Man Necessitates The Injury Of Another.

The Nation Which Once Held The Creed That Greatness Is Achieved By Production, Is Now Told That It Is Achieved By Squalor.

I Want It Real. I Want To Know That There Is Someone, Somewhere, Who Wants It, Too. Or Else What Is The Use Of Seeing It, And Working, And Burning Oneself For An Impossible Vision? A Spirit, Too, Needs Fuel. It Can Run Dry

People Think That A Liar Gains A Victory Over His Victim. What I’ve Learned Is That A Lie Is An Act Of Self-abdication, Because One Surrenders One’s Reality To The Person To Whom One Lies, Making That Person One’s Master, Condemning Oneself From Then On To Faking The Sort Of Reality That Person’s View Requires To Be Faked…the Man Who Lies To The World, Is The World’s Slave From Then On…there Are No White Lies, There Is Only The Blackest Of Destruction, And A White Lie Is The Blackest Of All.

The Meaning Ascribed In Popular Usage To The Word 'selfishness' Is Not Merely Wrong: It Represents A Devastating Intellectual 'package-deal,' Which Is Responsible, More Than Any Other Single Factor, For The Arrested Moral Development Of Mankind.

Moral Development

If It's Worth Doing, It's Worth Overdoing.

Under The Antitrust Laws, A Man Becomes A Criminal From The Moment He Goes Into Business, No Matter What He Does. If He Complies With One Of These Laws, He Faces Criminal Prosecution Under Several Others. For Instance, If He Charges Prices Which Some Bureaucrats Judge As Too High, He Can Be Prosecuted For Monopoly Or For A Successful 'intent To Monopolize'; If He Charges Prices Lower Than Those Of His Competitors, He Can Be Prosecuted For 'unfair Competition' Or 'restraint Of Trade'; And If He Charges The Same Prices As His Competitors, He Can Be Prosecuted For 'collusion' Or 'conspiracy.'

Socialism Is The Doctrine That Man Has No Right To Exist For His Own Sake, That His Life And His Work Do Not Belong To Him, But Belong To Society, That The Only Justification Of His Existence Is His Service To Society, And That Society May Dispose Of Him In Any Way It Pleases For The Sake Of Whatever It Deems To Be Its Own Tribal, Collective Good.

Run For Your Life From Any Man Who Tells You That Money Is Evil. That Sentence Is The Leper's Bell Of An Approaching Looter.

There's Nothing Of Any Importance In Life-except How Well You Do Your Work.

A Majority Vote Is Not An Epistemological Validation Of An Idea. Voting Is Merely A Proper Political Device--within A Strictly, Constitutionall Y Delimited Sphere Of Action--for Choosing The Practical Means Of Implementing A Society’s Basic Principles. But Those Principles Are Not Determined By Vote.

The Truth Is Not For All Men, But Only For Those Who Seek It.

Don't Worry. They're All Against Me. But I Have One Advantage: They Don't Know What They Want. I Do.

There Is A Fundamental Conviction Which Some People Never Acquire, Some Hold Only In Their Youth, And A Few Hold To The End Of Their Days-the Conviction That Ideas Matter . . . . That Ideas Matter Means That Knowledge Matters, That Truth Matters, That One's Mind Matters . . .

Whether It’s A Symphony Or A Coal Mine, All Work Is An Act Of Creating And Comes From The Same Source: From An Inviolate Capacity To See Through One’s Own Eyes-which Means: The Capacity To Perform A Rational Identification- Which Means: The Capacity To See, To Connect And To Make What Had Not Been Seen, Connected And Made Before.

It Is The Basic, Metaphysical Fact Of Man's Nature -- The Connection Between His Survival And His Use Of Reason -- That Capitalism Recognizes And Protects.

"you Were Not Born To Be A Second-hander." Howard Roark To Gail Wynand In "the Fountainhead"

If I Were To Speak Your Kind Of Language, I Would Say That Man's Only Moral Commandment Is: Thou Shalt Think. But A 'moral Commandment' Is A Contradiction In Terms. The Moral Is The Chosen, Not The Forced; The Understood, Not The Obeyed. The Moral Is The Rational, And Reason Accepts No Commandments.

Capitalism Is The Only System That Can Make Freedom, Individuality, And The Pursuit Of Values Possible In Practice. When I Say 'capitalism,' I Mean A Pure, Uncontrolled, Unregulated Laissez-faire Capitalism - With A Separation Of Economics, In The Same Way And For The Same Reasons As A Separation Of State And Church.

Money Demands That You Sell, Not Your Weakness To Men's Stupidity, But Your Talent To Their Reason.

Non-thinking Is An Act Of Annihilation, A Wish To Negate Existence, An Attempt To Wipe Out Reality. But Existence Exists; Reality Is Not To Be Wiped Out, It Will Merely Wipe Out The Wiper

Censorship' Is A Term Pertaining Only To Governmental Action. No Private Action Is Censorship. No Private Individual Or Agency Can Silence A Man Or Suppress A Publication; Only The Government Can Do So. The Freedom Of Speech Of Private Individuals Includes The Right Not To Agree, Not To Listen And Not To Finance One's Own Antagonists.

If You Write A Whole Line Of Zeroes, It's Still — Nothing.

Happiness Is Not Something You Have In Your Hands; It's Something You Carry In Your Heart. Happiness Is One Thing That Multiplies By Division. Happiness Is That Peculiar Sensation You Acquire When You Are Too Busy To Be Miserable. Happiness Is That State Of Consciousness Which Proceeds From The Achievement Of One's Values.

We Cannot Fight Against Collectivism, Unless We Fight Against Its Moral Base: Altruism. We Cannot Fight Against Altruism, Unless We Fight Against Its Epistemological Base: Irrationalism. We Cannot Fight Against Anything, Unless We Fight For Something--and What We Must Fight For Is The Supremacy Of Reason And A View Of Man As A Rational Being.

When Personal Judgment Is Inoperative (or Forbidden), Men's First Concern Is Not How To Choose, But How To Justify Their Choice

Courage And Confidence Are Practical Necessities . . . Courage Is The Practical Form Of Being True To Existence, Of Being True To Truth, And Confidence Is The Practical Form Of Being True To One’s Own Consciousness.

I Am Older Than You. Believe Me, There Is No Other Way To Live On Earth. Men Are Not Open To Truth Or Reason. They Cannot Be Reached By A Rational Argument. The Mind Is Powerless Against Them. Yet We Have To Deal With Them. If We Want To Accomplish Anything, We Have To Deceive Them Into Letting Us Accomplish It. Or Force Them. They Understand Nothing Else. We Cannot Expect Their Support For Any Endeavor Of The Intellect, For Any Goal Of The Spirit. They Are Nothing But Vicious Animals. They Are Greedy, Self-indulgent, Predatory Dollar-chasers

Happiness Is A State Of Non-contradictory Joy--a Joy Without Penalty Or Guilt, A Joy That Does Not Clash With Any Of Your Values And Does Not Work For Your Own Destruction, Not The Joy Of Escaping From Your Mind, But Of Using Your Mind's Fullest Power, Not The Joy Of Faking Reality, But Of Achieving Values That Are Real, Not The Joy Of A Drunkard, But Of A Producer.

The Desire Not To Be Anything Is The Desire Not To Be.

An Artist Recreates Those Aspects Of Reality Which Represent His Fundamental View Of Man's Nature.

When You See That Trading Is Done, Not By Consent, But By Compulsion...th At In Order To Produce, You Need To Obtain Permission From Men Who Produce Nothing-you May Know That Your Society Is Doomed.

If You Want To Save Capitalism There Is Only One Type Of Argument That You Should Adopt, The Only One That Has Ever Won In Any Moral Issue: The Argument From Self-esteem. Check Your Premises, Convince Yourself Of The Rightness Of Your Cause, Then Fight For Capitalism With Full, Moral Certainty.

Never Think Of Pain Or Danger Or Enemies A Moment Longer Than Is Necessary To Fight Them.

Upper Classes Are A Nation's Past; The Middle Class Is Its Future.

These Are The Things Before Me. And As I Stand Here At The Door Of Glory, I Look Behind Me For The Last Time. I Look Upon The History Of Men, Which I Have Learned From The Books, And I Wonder. It Was A Long Story, And The Spirit Which Moved It Was The Spirit Of Man’s Freedom. But What Is Freedom? Freedom From What? There Is Nothing To Take A Man’s Freedom Away From Him, Save Other Men. To Be Free, A Man Must Be Free Of His Brothers. That Is Freedom. This And Nothing Else.

What Is Man? He's Just A Collection Of Chemicals With Delusions Of Grandeur.

Delusions Of Grandeur

Every Government Interference In The Economy Consists Of Giving An Unearned Benefit, Extorted By Force, To Some Men At The Expense Of Others.

She Felt A Board Indifference Toward The Immediate World Around Her Toward Other Children And Adults Alike. She Took It As A Regrettable Accident To Be Borne Patiently For A While, That She Happened To Be Imprisoned Among People Who Were Dull. She Had Caught A Glimpse Of Another World And She Knew It Existed Somewhere, The World That Had Created Trains, Bridges, Telegraph Wires And Signal Lights Winking In The Night. She Had To Wait She Thought, And Grow Up To That World. - Dagny Taggart

There Is No Such Thing As Duty. If You Know That A Thing Is Right, You Want To Do It. If You Don't Want To Do It - It Isn't Right. If It's Right And You Don't Want To Do It - You Don't Know What Right Is And You're Not A Man.

Believing In Fate Produces Fate. Believing In Freedom Will Create Infinite Possibilities.

There Can Be No Compromise On Basic Principles. There Can Be No Compromise On Moral Issues. There Can Be No Compromise On Matters Of Knowledge, Of Truth, Of Rational Conviction.

What Objectivity And The Study Of Philosophy Requires Is Not An 'open Mind,' But An Active Mind - A Mind Able And Eagerly Willing To Examine Ideas, But To Examine Them Criticially.

The Art Of Writing Is The Art Of Doing What You Think You're Doing. This Is Not As Simple As It Sounds. It Implies A Very Difficult Undertaking: The Necessity To Think. And It Implies The Requirement To Think Out Three Separate, Very Hard Problems: What Is It You Want To Say? How Are You Going To Say It? Have You Really Said It?

It's True That There's No Such Thing As Free Will. We Can't Help What We Are Or What We Do. It's Not Our Fault. Nobody's To Blame For Anything. It's All In Your Background ... And Your Glands. If You're Good, That's No Achievement Of Yours - You Were Lucky In Your Glands. If You're Rotten, Nobody Should Punish You - You Were Unlucky, That's All.

She Knew That Even Pain Can Be Confessed, But To Confess Happiness Is To Stand Naked, Delivered To The Witness.

But Neither Life Nor Happiness Can Be Achieved By The Pursuit Of Irrational Whims. Just As Man Is Free To Attempt To Survive In Any Random Manner, But Will Perish Unless He Lives As His Nature Requires, So He Is Free To Seek His Happiness In Any Mindless Fraud, But The Torture Of Frustration Is All He Will Find, Unless He Seeks The Happiness Proper To Man. The Purpose Of Morality Is To Teach You, Not To Suffer And Die, But To Enjoy Yourself And Live.

The First Society In History Whose Leaders Were Neither Attilas Nor Witch Doctors, A Society Led, Dominated And Created By The Producers, Was The United States Of America.

I Made My Fortune By Being Able To Spot A Certain Kind Of Man.

She Did Not Know The Nature Of Her Loneliness. The Only Words That Named It Were: This Is Not The World I Expected.

Did I Feel A Physical Desire For Him? I Did. Was I Moved By A Passion Of My Body? I Was. Have I Experienced The Most Violent Form Of Sensual Pleasure? I Have.

Do You Mean To Tell Me That You're Thinking Seriously Of Building That Way, When And If You Are An Architect?" Yes." My Dear Fellow, Who Will Let You?" That's Not The Point. The Point Is, Who Will Stop Me?

He Wanted Her. He Knew Where To Find Her. He Waited. It Amused Him To Wait, Because He Knew That The Waiting Was Unbearable To Her. He Knew That His Absence Bound Her To Him In A Manner More Complete And Humiliating Than His Presence Could Enforce. He Was Giving Her Time To Attempt An Escape, In Order To Let Her Know Her Own Helplessness When He Chose To See Her Again.

About Mike The Construction Worker, Friend Of Roark: "he Worshipped Expertness Of Any Kind. He Loved His Work Passionately And Had No Tolerance For Anything Save For Other Single-track Devotions. He Was A Master In His Own Filed And Felt No Sympathy Except For Mastery. His View Of The World Was Simple: There Were The Able And There Were The Incompetent; He Was Not Concerned With The Latter."

Construction Workers

If A Life Could Have A Theme Song - And I Believe Every Worthwhile One Has - Mine Is A Religion, An Obsession, A Mania Or All Of These Expressed In One Word - Individualism. I Was Born With That Obsession, And I've Never Seen And Do Not Know Now A Cause More Worthy, More Misunderstood, More Seemingly Hopeless And Tragically Needed.

Love Is Our Response To Our Highest Values.

Competition Is A By-product Of Productive Work, Not Its Goal.

Productive Work

There Has Never Been A Philosophy, A Theory Or A Doctrine, That Attacked (or 'limited') Reason, Which Did Not Preach Submission To The Power Of Some Authority.

Morally, The Promise Of An Impossible “right” To Economic Security Is An Infamous Attempt To Abrogate The Concept Of Rights. It Can And Does Mean Only One Thing: A Promise To Enslave The Men Who Produce, For The Benefit Of Those Who Don’t.

Well, I Always Know What I Want. And When You Know What You Want--you Go Toward It. Sometimes You Go Very Fast, And Sometimes Only An Inch A Year. Perhaps You Feel Happier When You Go Fast. I Don't Know. I've Forgotten The Difference Long Ago, Because It Really Doesn't Matter, So Long As You Move.

It Was The Only Thing I Ever Really Wanted. And That’s The Sin That Can’t Be Forgiven--that I Hadn’t Done What I Wanted. It Feels So Dirty And Pointless And Monstrous, As One Feels About Insanity, Because There’s No Sense To It, No Dignity, Nothing But Pain--and Wasted Pain...why Do They Always Teach Us That It’s Easy And Evil To Do What We Want And That We Need Discipline To Restrain Ourselves? It’s The Hardest Thing In The World--to Do What We Want. And It Takes The Greatest Kind Of Courage.

And Here, Over The Portals Of My Fort, I Shall Cut In The Stone The Word Which Is To Be My Beacon And My Banner. The Word Which Will Not Die Should We All Perish In Battle. The Word Which Can Never Die On This Earth, For It Is The Heart Of It And The Meaning And The Glory. The Sacred Word: Ego

Sacrifice Is The Surrender Of That Which You Value In Favor Of Which You Dont

Potentially, A Government Is The Most Dangerous Threat To Man's Rights: It Holds A Legal Monopoly On The Use Of Physical Force Against Legally Disarmed Victims.

The Evil Of The World Is Made Possible By Nothing But The Sanction You Give It.

Ideas Are The Greatest And Most Crucially Practical Power On Earth.

It's Such A Waste To Be Subtle And Vicious With People Who Don't Even Know That You're Being Subtle And Vicious

...if Peace Were The Goal Of Today's Intellectuals, A Failure Of That Magnitude -- And The Evidence Of Unspeakable Suffering On So Large A Scale -- Would Make Them Pause And Check Their Statist Premises. Instead, Blind To Everything But Their Hatred For Capitalism, They Are Now Asserting That 'poverty Breeds Wars' ... But The Question Is: What Breeds Poverty? If You Look A The World Of Today And If You Look Back At History, You Will See The Answer: The Degree Of A Country's Freedom Is The Degree Of Its Prosperity.

The Social System Based On And Consonant With The Altruist Morality-with The Code Of Self-sacrifice- Is Socialism, In All Or Any Of Its Variants: Fascism, Nazism, Communism. All Of Them Treat Man As A Sacrificial Animal To Be Immolated For The Benefit Of The Group, The Tribe, The Society, The State.

Achievement Of Your Happiness Is The Only Moral Purpose Of Your Life, And That Happiness, Not Pain Or Mindless Self-indulgence, Is The Proof Of Your Moral Integrity, Since It Is The Proof And The Result Of Your Loyalty To The Achievement Of Your Values.

The Verdict You Pronounce Upon The Source Of Your Livelihood Is The Verdict You Pronounce Upon Your Life.

Only The Man Who Extols The Purity Of Love Devoid Of Desire, Is Capable Of The Depravity Of A Desire Devoid Of Love.

Another Current Catch-phrase Is The Complaint That The Nations Of The World Are Divided Into 'haves' And The 'have-nots.' Observe That The 'haves' Are Those Who Have Freedom, And That It Is Freedom That The 'have-nots' Have Not.

Congress Shall Make No Law Abridging The Freedom Of Production And Trade.

The Man-worshipers, In My Sense Of The Term, Are Those Who See Man's Highest Potential And Strive To Actualize It. The Man-haters Are Those Who Regard Man As A Helpless, Depraved, Contemptible Creature-and Struggle Never To Let Him Discover Otherwise.

Thinking Men Cannot Be Ruled; Ambitious Men Do Not Stagnate.

I Say That Man Is Entitled To His Own Happiness And That He Must Achieve It Himself. But That He Cannot Demand That Others Give Up Their Lives To Make Him Happy.

The Man Who Attempts To Live For Others Is A Dependent. He Is A Parasite In Motive And Makes Parasites Of Those He Serves.

Live For Others

It Was The Greatest Sensation Of Existence: Not To Trust But To Know.

It Is Not Death That We Wish To Avoid, But Life That We Wish To Live.

Every Man Builds His World In His Own Image; He Has The Power To Choose, But No Power To Escape The Necessity Of Choice. If He Abdicates His Power, He Abdicates The Status Of Man, And The Grinding Chaos Of The Irrational Is What He Achieves As His Sphere Of Existence—by His Own Choice.

Most American Men Are Repressors.

Do Not Lose Your Knowledge That Man's Proper Estate Is An Upright Posture, An Intransigent Mind, And A Step That Travels Unlimited Roads.

I've Always Thought That A Feeling Which Changes Never Existed In The First Place.

Don't Help Me Or Serve Me, But Let Me See It Once, Because I Need It. Don't Work For My Happiness, My Brothers — Show Me Yours — Show Me That It Is Possible — Show Me Your Achievement — And The Knowledge Will Give Me Courage For Mine.

A Rational Man Knows-or Makes It A Point To Discover-the Source Of His Emotions, The Basic Premises From Which They Come.

The Skyline Of New York Is A Monument Of A Splendour That No Pyramids Or Palaces Will Ever Equal Or Approach.

Do Not Let The Hero In Your Soul Perish.

If A Drought Strikes Them, Animals Perish--man Builds Irrigation Canals; If A Flood Strikes Them, Animals Perish--man Builds Dams; If A Carnivorous Pack Attacks Them, Animals Perish--man Writes The Constitution Of The United States.

It Is Futile To Fight Against, If One Does Not Know What One Is Fighting For.

Rulers Exist Entirely Through The Persons Of Others. Their Goal Is In Their Subjects, In The Activity Of Enslaving. They Are As Dependent As The Beggar, The Social Worker And The Bandit. The Form Of Dependence Does Not Matter.

What Whip Lashed Them To Their Knees In Shame And Submission? The Worship Of The Word "we.

A Rational Man Is Guided By His Thinking - By A Process Of Reason - Not By His Feelings And Desires.

Power-lust Is A Weed That Grows Only In The Vacant Lots Of An Abandoned Mind.

In All Proper Relationships There Is No Sacrifice Of Anyone To Anyone.

In Western Civilization, The Period Ruled By Mysticism Is Known As The 'dark Ages' And The 'middle Ages'. I Will Assume That You Know The Nature Of That Period And The State Of Human Existence In Those Ages. The Renaissance Broke The Rules Of The Mystics. "renaissance" Means The "rebirth". Few People Today Will Care To Remind You That It Was A Rebirth Of Reason - Of Man's Mind.

There Can Be No Compromise Between Freedom And Government Controls; To Accept 'just A Few Controls' Is To Surrender The Principle Of Inalienable Individual Rights And To Substitute For It The Principle Of The Government’s Unlimited, Arbitrary Power, Thus Delivering Oneself Into Gradual Enslavement. As An Example Of This Process, Observe The Present Domestic Policy Of The United States.

The Man Of Authentic Self-confidence Is The Man Who Relies On The Judgment Of His Own Mind. Such A Man Is Not Malleable; He May Be Mistaken, He May Be Fooled In A Given Instance, But He Is Inflexible In Regard To The Absolutism Of Reality, I.e., In Seeking And Demanding Truth.

I Am An Intransigent Atheist, Though Not A Militant One. This Means That I Am Not Fighting Against Religion - I Am Fighting For Reason.

I Came Here To Say That I Do Not Recognize Anyone's Right To One Minute Of My Life. Nor To Any Part Of My Energy. Nor To Any Achievement Of Mine. No Matter Who Makes The Claim, How Large Their Number Or How Great Their Need. I Wished To Come Here And Say That I Am A Man Who Does Not Exist For Others." - Howard Roark

To Preserve One's Mind Intact Through A Modern College Education Is A Test Of Courage And Endurance, But The Battle Is Worth It And The Stakes Are The Highest Possible To Man: The Survival Of Reason.

In Order To Deal With Reality Successfully - To Pursue And Achieve The Values Which His Life Requires - Man Needs Self-esteem; He Needs To Be Confident Of His Efficacy And Worth.

The Necessary Consequence Of Man's Right To Life Is His Right To Self-defense. In A Civilized Society, Force May Be Used Only In Retaliation And Only Against Those Who Initiate Its Use. All The Reasons Which Make The Initiation Of Physical Force An Evil, Make The Retaliatory Use Of Physical Force A Moral Imperative. If Some "pacifist" Society Renounced The Retaliatory Use Of Force, It Would Be Left Helplessly At The Mercy Of The First Thug Who Decided To Be Immoral. Such A Society Would Achieve The Opposite Of Its Intention: Instead Of Abolishing Evil, It Would Encourage And Reward It.

He Wanted Nothing, For The Time Being, Except To Understand .... Without Advice, Assistance Or Plan, He Began Reading An Incongruous Assortment Of Books; He Would Find Some Passage Which He Could Not Understand In One Book, And He Would Get Another On That Subject .... There Was No Order In His Reading; But There Was Order In What Remained Of It In His Mind.

Collectivism Means The Subjugation Of The Individual To A Group - Whether To A Race, Class Or State Does Not Matter. Collectivism Holds That Man Must Be Chained To Collective Action And Collective Thought For The Sake Of What Is Called 'the Common Good'.

Individualism Regards Man - Every Man - As An Independent, Sovereign Entity Who Possesses An Inalienable Right To His Own Life, A Right Derived From His Nature As A Rational Being. Individualism Holds That A Civilized Society, Or Any Form Of Association, Cooperation Or Peaceful Co-existence Among Men, Can Be Achieved Only On The Basis Of The Recognition Of Individual Rights - And That A Group, As Such, Has No Rights Other Than The Individual Rights Of Its Members.

No Advocate Of Reason Can Claim The Right To Force His Ideas On Others. No Advocate Of The Free Mind Can Claim The Right To Force The Minds Of Others. No Rational Society, No Co-operation, No Agreement, No Understanding, No Discussion Are Possible Among Men Who Propose To Substitute Guns For Rational Persuasion.

To Be Free, A Man Must Be Free Of His Brothers. That Is Freedom. That And Nothing Else.

...only The Pleasure Which Proceeds From A Rational Value Judgement Can Be Regarded As Moral, Pleasure, As Such, Is Not A Guide To Action Nor A Standard Of Morality.

When A Man Feels Fear Without Reason, You Call Him To The Attention Of A Psychiatrist; You Are Not So Careful To Protect The Meaning, The Nature And The Dignity Of Love.

Morality Pertains Only To The Sphere Of Man's Free Will - Only To Those Actions Which Are Open To His Choice.

We The Living Is Not A Novel 'about Soviet Russia.' It Is A Novel About Man Against The State. Its Basic Theme Is The Sanctity Of Human Life - Using The Word 'sanctity' Not In A Mystical Sense, But In The Sense Of 'supreme Value.'

Man's Mind Is His Basic Tool Of Survival. Life Is Given To Him, Survival Is Not. His Body Is Given To Him, Its Sustenance Is Not. His Mind Is Given To Him, Its Content Is Not. To Remain Alive, He Must Act, And Before He Can Act He Must Know The Nature And Purpose Of His Action. He Cannot Obtain His Food Without A Knowledge Of Food And Of The Way To Obtain It. He Cannot Dig A Ditch-or Build A Cyclotron-without A Knowledge Of His Aim And Of The Means To Achieve It. To Remain Alive, He Must Think

The Man Who Speaks To You Of Sacrifice, Speaks Of Slaves And Masters. And Intends To Be The Master.

Capitalism Has Created The Highest Standard Of Living Ever Known On Earth. The Evidence Is Incontrovertible. The Contrast Between West And East Berlin Is The Latest Demonstration, Like A Laboratory Experiment For All To See. Yet Those Who Are Loudest In Proclaiming Their Desire To Eliminate Poverty Are Loudest In Denouncing Capitalism. Man's Well-being Is Not Their Goal.

Words Are A Lens To Focus One's Mind.

Men Have Been Taught That Their First Concern Is To Relieve The Suffering Of Others. ... To Make That The Highest Test Of Virtue Is To Make Suffering The Most Important Part Of Life. Then Man Must Wish To See Others Suffer In Order That He May Be Virtuous. Such Is The Nature Of Altruism.

Suffering Of Others

Look, Gail." Roark Got Up, Reached Out, Tore A Thick Branch Off A Tree, Held It In Both Hands, One Fist Closed At Each End; Then, His Wrists And Knuckles Tensed Against The Resistance, He Bent The Branch Slowly Into An Arc. "now I Can Make What I Want Of It: A Bow, A Spear, A Cane, A Railing. That's The Meaning Of Life." "your Strength?" "your Work." He Tossed The Branch Aside. "the Material The Earth Offers You And What You Make Of It . . .

One Loses Everything When One Loses One's Sense Of Humor.

Achieving Life Is Not The Equivalent Of Avoiding Death.

America's Abundance Was Not Created By Public Sacrifices To The Common Good, But By The Productive Genius Of Free Men Who Pursued Their Own Personal Interests And The Making Of Their Own Private Fortunes.

[altruism] Is A Moral System Which Holds That Man Has No Right To Exist For His Own Sake, That Service To Others Is The Sole Justification Of His Existence, And That Self-sacrifice Is His Highest Moral Duty, Value And Virtue. This Is The Moral Base Of Collectivism, Of All Dictatorships.

It Is Morally Obscene To Regard Wealth As An Anonymous, Tribal Product And To Talk About 'redistributing' It.

Do Not Make The Mistake...of Thinking That A Worker Is A Slave And That He Holds His Job By His Employer's Permission. He Does Not Hold It By Permission - But By Contract, That Is, By A Voluntary Mutual Agreement. A Worker Can Quit His Job; A Slave Cannot.

Racism Is The Lowest, Most Crudely Primitive Form Of Collectivism.

The Men Who Are Not Interested In Philosophy Need It Most Urgently: They Are Most Helplessly In Its Power. The Men Who Are Not Interested In Philosophy Absorb Its Principles From The Cultural Atmosphere Around Them-from Schools, Colleges, Books, Magazines, Newspapers, Movies, Television, Etc. Who Sets The Tone Of A Culture? A Small Handful Of Men: The Philosophers. Others Follow Their Lead, Either By Conviction Or By Default.

The Uncontested Absurdities Of Today Are The Accepted Slogans Of Tomorrow.

And What, Incidentally, Do You Think Integrity Is? The Ability Not To Pick A Watch Out Of Your Neighbor's Pocket? No, It's Not As Easy As That. If That Were All, I'd Say Ninety-five Percent Of Humanity Were Honest, Upright Men. Only, As You Can See, They Aren't. Integrity Is The Ability To Stand By An Idea.

Freedom Comes From Seeing The Ignorance Of Your Critics And Discovering The Emptiness Of Their Virtue.

Do Not Ever Say That The Desire To 'do Good' By Force Is A Good Motive. Neither Power-lust Nor Stupidity Are Good Motives.

You Love People, Not For What You Do For Them Or What They Do For You. You Love Them For Their Values; Their Virtues.

Since A Rational Man's Ambition Is Unlimited, Since His Pursuit And Achievement Of Values Is A Life-long Process — And The Higher The Values, The Harder The Struggle — He Needs A Moment, An Hour Or Some Period Of Time In Which He Can Experience The Sense Of His Completed Task, The Sense Of Living In A Universe Where His Values Have Been Successfully Achieved.

It's A Rare Gift, You Know, To Feel Reverence For Your Own Life And To Want The Best, The Greatest, The Highest Possible, Here, Now, For Your Very Own.

Whatever Their Future, At The Dawn Of Their Lives, Men Seek A Noble Vision Of Man's Nature And Of Life's Potential.

We Didn't Really Have To Take Everything So Seriously, Did We?

To Sell Your Soul Is The Easiest Thing In The World. That's What Everybody Does Every Hour Of His Life. If I Asked You To Keep Your Soul - Would You Understand Why That's Much Harder?

Reason Is Not Automatic. Those Who Deny It Cannot Be Conquered By It. Do Not Count On Them. Leave Them Alone.

[t]he Only Real Moral Crime That One Man Can Commit Against Another Is The Attempt To Create, By His Words Or Actions, An Impression Of The Contradictory, The Impossible, The Irrational, And Thus Shake The Concept Of Rationality In His Victim.

It Is A Sin To Write This.

Have You Ever Felt A Potential Love For Someone? Like, You Don't Actually Love Them And You Know You Don't, But You Know You Could. You Realise That You Could Easily Fall In Love With Them. It's Almost Like The Bud Of A Flower, Ready To Blossom But It's Just Not Quite There Yet. And You Like Them A Lot, You Really Do. You Think About Them Often, But You Don't Love Them. You Could, Though. You Know You Could.

Falling In Love

Talent Alone Is Helpless Today. Any Success Requires Both Talent And Luck. And The 'luck' Has To Be Helped Along And Provided By Someone.

Ideas, In A Free Society, Are Not A Crime- And Neither Can They Serve As The Justification Of A Crime.

You Love Your Work. God Help You, You Love It! And Thats The Curse. That's The Brand On Your Forehead For All Of Them To See. You Love It And They Know It, And They Know They Have You. Do You Ever Look At The People In The Street? Aren't You Afraid Of Them? I Am. They Move Past You And They Wear Hats And They Carry Bundles. But That's Not The Substance Of Them. The Substance Of Them Is Hatred For Any Man Who Loves His Work. That's The Only Kind They Fear. I Don't Know Why

There Is No Hope For The World Unless And Until We Formulate, Accept And State Publicly A True Moral Code Of Individualism, Based On Man's Inalienable Right To Live For Himself. Neither To Hurt Nor To Serve His Brothers, But To Be Independent Of Them In His Function And In His Motive. Neither To Sacrifice Them For Himself Nor To Sacrifice Himself For Them.

There Were Things In My Past Which I Have Not Liked. But All The Things Of Which I Was Proud Will Remain.

A Mystic Is A Man Who Treats His Feelings As Tools Of Cognition.

Pride Is The Recognition Of The Fact That You Are Your Own Highest Value And, Like All Of Man's Values, It Has To Be Earned.

No Speech Is Ever Considered, But Only The Speaker. It's So Much Easier To Pass Judgement On A Man Than On An Idea.

The Men Of The Press, Who Despised Their Own Profession, Did Not Know Why They Were Enjoying It Today. One Of Them, A Young Man With Years Of Notorious Success Behind Him And A Cynical Look Of Twice His Age, Said Suddenly, 'i Know What I'd Like To Be: I Wish I Could Be A Man Who Covers News!'

If A Man Speculates On What 'society' Should Do For The Poor, He Accepts Thereby The Collectivist Premise That Men's Lives Belong To Society And That He, As A Member Of Society, Has The Right To Dispose Of Them...that Psychological Confession Reveals The Enormity Of The Extent To Which Altruism Erodes Men's Capacity To Grasp The Concept Of Rights Or The Value Of An Individual Life.

Volumes Can Be And Have Been Written About The Issue Of Freedom Versus Dictatorship, But, In Essence, It Comes Down To A Single Question: Do You Consider It Moral To Treat Men As Sacrificial Animals And To Rule Them By Physical Force?

My Philosophy, In Essence, Is The Concept Of Man As A Heroic Being, With His Own Happiness As The Moral Purpose Of His Life, With Productive Achievement As His Noblest Activity, And Reason As His Only Absolute.

Ferris: Are You Going To Be As Impractical As That? Rearden: The Evaluation Of An Action As Practical, Dr. Ferris, Depends On What It Is That One Wishes To Practice. Ferris: Haven't You Always Placed Your Self-interest Above All Else? Rearden: That Is What I Am Doing Right Now.

I Need No Warrant For Being, And No Word Of Sanction Upon My Being. I Am The Warrant And The Sanction.

Any Group Or "collective", Large Or Small, Is Only A Number Of Individuals. A Group Can Have No Rights Other Than The Rights Of Its Individual Members.

Productiveness Is Your Acceptance Of Morality, Your Recognition Of The Fact That You Choose To Live-that Productive Work Is The Process By Which Man's Consciousness Controls His Existence, A Constant Process Of Acquiring Knowledge And Shaping Matter To Fit One's Purpose, Of Translating An Idea Into Physical Form, Of Remaking The Earth In The Image Of One's Values-that All Work Is Creative Work If Done By A Thinking Mind.

Love Is An Expression And Assertion Of Self-esteem, A Response To One's Own Values In The Person Of Another. One Gains A Profoundly Personal, Selfish Joy From The Mere Existence Of The Person One Loves. It Is One's Own Personal, Selfish Happiness That One Seeks, Earns, And Derives From Love.

In Order To Be In Control Of Your Life, You Have To Have A Purpose-a Productive Purpose.

Control Of Your Life

Anyone Who Fights For The Future, Lives In It Today.

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